Animal Rebellion, including two ex-RSPCA trustees, met with the RSPCA earlier this month. The meeting was an opportunity to press the charity to take a formal stance against animal farming, and to support a transition to a plant-based system. 

Martin Whybrow is a former RSPCA branch trustee and now a member of the Animal Rebellion group. He said in a press statement, “It is impossible to meet the targets needed to limit global heating without the shift to a plant-based food system.” 

Whybrow continued, “Already, millions of humans and animals are suffering from the effects of extreme climate. It makes total sense for a charity dedicated to animal welfare to join the dots.”

RSPCA’s animal welfare standards

The RSPCA campaigns for the “highest possible standards” of animal welfare during the rearing, transportation, and slaughter of animals.

But the organization permits controversial practices, including the use of gas and maceration for the killing of day-old chicks.

“Done correctly, both methods can offer an effective and humane kill and our welfare standards set strict parameters stating how both of these methods must be carried out to ensure this is the case,” the RSPCA shared in a Tweet.

Advocating for a kinder food system

Animal Rebellion is asking the RSPCA to fulfil its mission statement and support a future where all animals are respected and treated with kindness and compassion. 

“We ask the RSPCA how they can justify caring for dogs and cats while supporting the slaughter of the millions of farmed animals who are killed for food every year in the UK alone,” Animal Rebellion explained.

“Additionally, we ask the RSPCA how they can claim to care for and respect wild animals when they condone an industry that is one of the leading causes of the climate crisis.” 

The animal protection movement intends to continue taking action until “the world sees a food system that centers on climate, animal, and human justice, rather than unsustainable growth.”

The post Former Trustees Urge RSPCA To Reject Animal Farming In Favor Of Plant-Based Systems appeared first on Plant Based News.

Under the act, if an offender causes life-threatening injuries and high levels of pain, they could receive five years in prison. But even if there is a small amount of harm, caused by “incompetent care” or a “brief lapse in judgment,” they could still face up to six months behind bars.

Kurt Zouma and animal cruelty

The updated sentencing guidance comes as French footballer Kurt Zouma faces animal cruelty charges. The RSPCA is prosecuting the West Ham player and his brother Yoan for dropping, kicking, slapping, and throwing shoes at a cat. They then posted the footage online.

Zouma has apologized for the incident. But to ensure their safety, the RSCPA removed the footballer’s cats. West Ham has issued Zouma with a fine of £250,000.

The footballer is also being investigated for the same crime in France. (The French Penal Code states that citizens can be prosecuted for crimes carried out abroad.)

In the UK, Zouma will reportedly face trial for animal abuse on May 24.
 
Other “aggravating” factors in animal cruelty cases include the presence of children and the element of professional responsibility. (This would apply to farmers, vets, and breeders, for example.)

Per the Telegraph, Judge Rosa Dean of the Sentencing Council said: “Animals are not able to defend themselves or draw attention to their suffering. It is important that courts have the powers to deliver appropriate sentences to offenders who commit these crimes.”

The post Judges Crack Down On Animal Cruelty Ahead Of Kurt Zouma Trial appeared first on Plant Based News.

Glue traps are sold widely for as little as 99p. But they’re dubbed to cause immense suffering as they can rip off limbs and leave animals in distress as they endure immense torture.

They also catch other animals, such as cats, birds, and hedgehogs. This has prompted the RSCPA to receive 236 reports of glue trap incidents over the past five years.

‘Inhumane’ rodent glue traps

As of this week, animal protection figures are celebrating the Glue Traps (Offences) Bill which today (November 19) receives its second reading in parliament.

If passed, the legislation will make it an offense to set a glue trap for the purpose of catching a rodent, as well as a handful of other connected offenses. Anyone found guilty will be liable for either a fine or imprisonment.

It was put forward by Conservative MP Jane Stevenson. Upon its first presentation earlier this year, she said: “When pest control is needed, we have a responsibility to use the most humane methods in order to prevent unnecessary suffering. 

“A rodent stuck in a glue trap will suffer a slow and painful death, which isn’t acceptable when other pest control methods are available.

“…It is surely time to end the use of these inhumane and indiscriminate traps.” Animal welfare minister Lord Goldsmith has backed the proposal.

Government and charity caution

Among the charities supporting the bill are the RSPCA, Humane Society International/UK, Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, PETA UK, Animal Aid, Cats Protection, and UK Centre for Animal Law.

Despite this, they call for the bill to be “strengthed,” with stricter regulations. As it stands, the Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) will be given license to allow pest controllers to use the glue trap. This is when there is “no other satisfactory solution.”

Pest controllers

In a statement sent to PBN, Chris Sherwood of the RSPCA said: “We are pleased to see the first steps towards more regulation of torturous glue traps which cause such suffering and misery to animals.

“However, we would like to see the exemptions clarified and loopholes tightened so this law is as effective as it can be.

“The way the bill currently stands only rodents are included in the wording. It is true that mice and rats are victims. But other animals such as snakes, robins, owls, and even kittens are maimed or fatally injured because of these awful traps. 

“We are concerned that the focus on rodents could provide a loophole for those who wish to set such traps for other animals.”

Claire Bass is the executive director of Humane Society International/UK. Her worries are that pest control is an “unregulated industry.” Moreover, she said the bill would allow the traps to be used with “very little scrutiny.”

The UK Centre for Animal Law echoes the concerns as it claims the term pest controller is “too wide.”

The post Ban On ‘Inhumane’ Rodent Glue Traps Isn’t Strict Enough, Say Animal Charities appeared first on Plant Based News.

The investigation took place at Willerby Wold Piggeries in Yorkshire. The site supplied pork products to Morrisons, Tesco, Asda, and Sainsbury’s – that is, until the supermarkets saw what was happening.

The footage revealed animals sick, dying, or dead amid squalid living conditions where rotting carcasses were found throughout.

But this is not an isolated case.

Pig farms exposed

Just last month, another undercover investigation at intensive indoor farm P&G Sleigh Pig Unit in Aberdeenshire revealed ‘a number of serious legal violations’. The farm was supplying Lidl, Tesco, and Marks & Spencer.

In the last few years, the charity Animal Equality has investigated 10 pig farms.

One of which revealed pigs being beaten to death with hammers on a farm owned by the now-former chairman of Quality Meat Scotland.

Life for farmed pigs has never been good. But in the last decade the intensification of pig farming has led to more horrific treatment of these intelligent, sensitive, social animals.

Is pig farming in the UK now rotten to the core?

Intensive farming

There are over 220 intensive or ‘factory’ pig farms in the UK today. And there are over 250 industrial indoor units, up five percent since 2017. 

The rise of intensive pig farming has been blamed for increases in sow deaths from prolapse. It’s also led to an increase in stress behaviors such as bar biting.

There are also impacts on people and the planet.

Biodiversity is damaged from ammonia runoff, and impacts on communities include noise pollution, increased traffic, and the threat of air pollutants and viruses, including potential sources of the next pandemic.

“Factory pig farming has become a race to the bottom in terms of animal welfare,” explains Alastair Kenneil from the campaign group Farms Not Factories. 

“Farmers are trying to survive falling prices, rising feed costs and cheap, low welfare imports from countries with lower (or non-existent) welfare standards. Trade deals with the US or Australia will further distort the market and drive more UK pig farmers out of business.” 

But what is life like for the pigs?

Existing, not living

There are around 10 million pigs in the UK bred each year for food, from around 400,000 breeding sows.

This is down from 16 million (and 800,000 sows) in 1997. Pig meat is the most consumed ‘red’ meat in the UK, more than beef and lamb.

Around 90 percent of these pigs are raised on Red Tractor ‘assured’ farms.

Pigs can live on average around 5-10 years, although some are known to have lived until at least 25.

But in the farming system, most are slaughtered as infants.

Slaughtered as infants

According to the RSPCA: “Pork pigs for small joints and fresh meat are slaughtered at 15-16 weeks of age, whilst bacon pigs are slaughtered at 22 weeks of age.”

Over two million pigs die before even reaching slaughter.

Many of these deaths are from the horrific conditions seen at Willerby Wold, including injuries, illness, and neglect.

As the report says ‘the serious health and welfare issues on this farm are not unique’ with deformities and pigs cannibalizing each other being a common occurrence in pig farms. 

For the vast majority of pigs, their short lives are full of pain.

Tail docking

From birth, pigs are treated like commodities to improve profits and efficiency.

Despite it being prohibited under law, around 80 percent of piglets have their tails docked (cut off) shortly after birth, without anesthetic. 

This is to prevent tail biting later on, which occurs when pigs are under physical or mental stress and fight each other in crowded conditions. 

So their tails are docked painfully because the farmer wants to keep them in overcrowded, unnatural conditions, to increase profitability. 

Environmental stimulation

“UK laws specify that pigs must have access to manipulable material to prevent tail-biting,” says Alastair Kenneil from Farms Not Factories. 

He adds: “However many factory farms wrongly interpret this as being able to include toys such as plastic pipes hanging from the ceiling, rather than providing proper manipulable material such as deep straw bedding.”

This was a major factor in the devastating conditions found at Willerby Wold, according to vet Dr. Alice Brough.

In the investigation, there were very limited attempts to provide this legally required ‘manipulable material’ such as a single chain or alkathene pipe.

“The lack of enrichment is likely a factor in the widespread tail biting on the farm” says Dr. Brough.

Although she stresses that tail biting has multiple causal factors.

Teeth clipping

It is also illegal to ‘routinely’ clip or blunt pigs’ teeth.

Yet it is done on many pig farms – especially intensive farms – to prevent injuries from piglets fighting to access their mother sow’s teats. 

Another undercover investigation from 2011 showed footage from a Somerset pig farm. Here, piglets had their teeth clipped off with metal pliers without anesthetic.

This is again a consequence of farming practices, as farmers engineer sows to breed more piglets than they can naturally feed.

Confinement in sheds

Most have rarely or never seen the outdoors.

Almost all pigs (96 percent) – including those born outdoors – are put into sheds for ‘finishing’ (preparation for slaughter).

Most live their entire lives in these concrete and metal hangars, similar to those at Willerby Wold.

“Intensive farmers see the pigs as capital-generating machines rather than living beings,” says academic Dr. Ekaterina Gladkova, whose research looks at the growing intensification of pig farming in Northern Ireland.

Farrowing crates

“Unbelievably, it is legal in the UK for mother pigs (sows) to be confined in a farrowing crate, a barren, steel cage too narrow for her to turn around, for five weeks in each pregnancy,” explains Kenneil. 

“These crates cause lesions, cramps, muscle atrophy, pain and distress to the sows who cannot nurse their piglets and often suffer from bleeding gums caused by biting the bars in frustration and stress.”

Artificial insemination

Nearly all sows in intensive farming are artificially inseminated. While this is perfectly legal in the UK, it means sows do not get to choose when and with whom to mate. 

Another 2015 undercover investigation on a Red Tractor Certified intensive pig farm in Humberside showed sows kept in ‘impregnation cages’.

They were covered in feces and flies, and piglets were kept in ‘battery cages’.

Within two weeks of a mother sow’s piglets being taken away, sows are artificially inseminated again to maintain profitability.

Gas chambers

Most pigs in the UK – 86 percent – are now slaughtered inside ‘humane’ gas chambers using carbon dioxide (CO₂).

This involves lowering pigs into a gas chamber, where they panic, fight for breath and eventually suffocate.

It can take as long as 60 seconds for them to lose consciousness.

Animals Australia were the first to obtain footage from inside the gas chambers. The images are horrifying and distressing as the pigs panic to stay alive.

Outside Tulip Meats Slaughterhouse in Manchester, activists from Manchester Pig Save have long documented horrific scenes.

This includes the screams and cries of pigs as they’re lowered into the gas chambers.

The antibiotic threat

Last week, The Guardian revealed that UK pig farms have doubled their use of aminoglycosides.

It is a class of antibiotics critical for human health over the period 2015-2019 – all to keep pigs from being sick, and therefore profitable.

If antibiotics are fed to animals which humans then eat, the diseases they’re meant to protect humans from can become antibiotic-resistant. 

As Cóilín Nunan, scientific adviser at campaign group Alliance to Save our Antibiotics, told the Guardian, reductions in antibiotic use could be achieved ‘if pigs are kept less intensively’.

RSPCA assured?

The pig industry and animal welfare charities have tried to reassure consumers. They claim the UK has the ‘highest welfare standards’ when it comes to farmed animals. 

The RSPCA Assured scheme is meant to reassure consumers that pigs under its scheme are not tail docked. It is also meant to ensure they have adequate straw and bedding, and are not kept in cages.

Accreditation under RSPCA Assured schemes soared by 52 percent between 2016 and 2020. The label is recognised by 64 percent of young professionals and families. Nearly 4,000 farms, abattoirs, processors, and packers are members of its scheme.

But undercover investigations at RSPCA Assured farms have also revealed terrible conditions for animals. At Hoads Farm in East Sussex, investigators found squalid and cramped conditions, and corpses. 

The RSPCA suspended Hoads Farm’s ‘high welfare’ status and undertook an investigation. However, it reinstated the farm to its scheme in February 2020.

“Lots of pigs under this scheme are routinely tail docked, and tail biting is not uncommon”, says Dr. Brough.

No enforcement

“Even RSPCA scheme standards say pigs can be given as little as 0.8 square meters each (a piece of flip chart paper is 0.7m²),” explains Jane Tredgett.

She is the founder of the campaign Scrap Factory Farming and a former RSPCA board member. 

“Over 90 percent of the UK pigs and chickens are farmed in these sorts of conditions.”

“There is hardly any enforcement of pig welfare laws in the UK,” continues Kenneil from Farms Not Factories. “

Kenneil adds: “This allows many factory pig farms to raise pigs in conditions similar to those revealed in the Willerby Wold investigation.

“The atrocious cruelty, all too common on UK factory pig farms, only comes to public attention when the results of undercover investigations by whistleblower campaigns are published.”

Inadequate surveillance

Tredgett agrees: “Surveillance by the government and assurance schemes is inadequate.”

“…The chances of being caught are slim and the consequences short term.

“I know from my experience as an RSPCA Trustee that, more often than not, farms are reinstated a few months after the story breaks. Consumers believe that a certified mark means the animals were well treated but time after time exposés reveal weaknesses.”

Her campaign Scrap Factory Farming tracked 15 exposes similar to Willerby Wold. “Including some ‘higher welfare’ ones,” she explains. “Only one farm has closed, the others are still operating as far as we know but there is little transparency.”

Red Tractor certified?

The fact Red Tractor labels can be found on cans of Carling lager should tell you that it is not an indicator of ‘higher welfare’ standards for farmed animals.

It’s to let drinkers know the barley is British.

Willerby Wold Piggeries was Red Tractor assured. 

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) introduced the label in 2000. This was not to raise welfare standards, but as a response to research that 70 percent of the UK public did not know what kind of foods British farmers produced, or how.

Red Tractor, while promoting itself as ‘assured’, only tells people where food comes from and how it is produced.

It is often wrongly promoted as ‘welfare assurance’ by the industry. This is because it benefits public perception of the UK’s farming practices.

For the sake of profit

“My [pig farmer] respondents saw higher welfare standards as another factor that may sway the consumer and encourage them to buy their products,” says Dr. Gladkova.

She adds: “Perversely, farmers do factor the standards in and may even aspire to the higher standards, but for the sake of profit and economic interests, rather than animal wellbeing.”

In relation to pigs, there are eight standards documents.

These do not assess how the pigs are treated. Rather, they check how they are used to produce food. This is to keep the farm – and the consumer – safe from diseases and compliant with food safety laws.

“Red Tractor is not a higher welfare label,” stresses Kenneil from Farms not Factories.

He adds: “Red Tractor accredits farms, like Willerby Wold, that abuse pigs.”

The farm does this ‘by overcrowding them in filthy, barren conditions’. Moreover, it ‘routinely doses them with antibiotics to prevent diseases spreading through the barns’.

The future pandemic?

We know that three in four pandemics are from zoonotic sources. Whereas farming and slaughter conditions create a breeding ground for viruses.

Intensive farming makes these conditions more likely.

“People have adapted to reducing contact, social distancing and staying outdoors to beat COVID-19,” says Tredgett.

“But these are the exact opposite of conditions on factory farms, where we have large numbers of genetically similar animals crammed together. They are mutilated without analgesia, unable to behave normally, stressed and standing in their own feces.” 

Most pandemics in the 21st century have not come from ‘wet markets’ but have rather come from avian or swine influenza, such as the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak, which killed nearly 300,000 people.

The World Health Organisation said: “This time around, we have been aided by pure good luck. The virus did not mutate during the pandemic to a more lethal form.”  

The conditions pigs are kept in are ‘leading to more diseases becoming resistant to antibiotics and passing from pigs to humans, such as the pig strain of MRSA, ST398‘, explains Kenneil. 

Unfortunately, much of the effort to keep pigs healthy is so that ‘your bacon remains affordable‘ completely ignoring the experience of the pigs themselves.

‘Burst the bubble’

The UK may be ahead of other countries in welfare terms. But this doesn’t mean animals are treated well.

It’s only relatively better than horrific conditions elsewhere.

“We frequently hear the assertion that the UK has some of the best welfare in the world. I have to burst that bubble,” Dr. Brough writes. 

“Not only is the comparison to other nations inaccurate. But, it is also largely irrelevant, particularly when you consider that we import 60 percent of the pig meat consumed here.

“Does being better than atrocious automatically make us good? It certainly does not.”

Will things change?

“There is no political will to disturb a system that produces cheap food, so the NFU, Red Tractor, and DEFRA tacitly acquiesce to the existing situation where most intensive indoor farms routinely break the law,” says Kenneil. 

This is despite the real threats to human health from future zoonotic pandemics.

“Even though more people are now becoming aware that intensive farming is certainly a contributing factor to the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases,” says Dr. Gladkova.

She adds: “I doubt that this awareness is enough to shake the very solid (and, unfortunately, equally harmful) foundations of our meat production system.”

For the 10 million pigs farmed in the UK – especially those in the growing intensive farming system – their short lives of misery will continue unless demand for their flesh is brought to an end.

As Ed Winters says, the tree is rotten: “The only way to end cruelty to animals is to be vegan.”

The post Is Pig Farming In The UK Rotten To The Core? appeared first on Plant Based News.

An undercover investigation at two ‘ethical’ chicken farms – one of which supplies supermarket giant Tesco – has revealed shocking animal abuse.

Pressure group, Animal Justice Project (AJP) carried out the three-month investigations at Trees Farm and Brome Grange in Suffolk. Both farms are accredited by the Red Tractor marketing scheme, which claims it offers food which is ‘responsibly produced to some of the most comprehensive and respected standards in the world’. Trees Farm is also accredited by the RSPCA.

But the footage and images AJP obtained show chickens being kicked and thrown with force. Workers were documented snapping the necks of chicks, and leaving one chick to die over a period of eight hours. In addition, a worker was filmed urinating into a bucket then throwing live but seriously impaired birds into it eight hours later.

Suspended

According to a Tesco spokesperson, the supermarket has suspended Brome Grange farm, and says it is ‘fully investigating and will continue to engage with the appropriate authorities on welfare standards at the farm’.

The RSPCA has suspended Trees Farm from its accreditation scheme, saying: “We are shocked and disgusted. We are looking into these upsetting incidents.”

Red Tractor, which was in the news just last week after investigations at three accredited Lincolnshire farms revealed abuse, said both Suffolk farms had been ‘suspended with immediate effect’, saying it takes ‘allegations of breaches’ seriously.

The footage reveals horrific animal suffering

‘Cruel abuse and pain’

“This extensive investigation into the lives of ‘slow growing’ and supposedly high welfare chickens – from the placing of chicks to the catching of young birds at nine weeks old for slaughter – reveals that ‘meat’ chickens are subjected to cruel abuse, pain, and suffering regardless of labels,” AJP Founder, Claire Palmer, states, said in a statement sent to Plant Based News.

“We have recorded scenes of birds having their necks broken by workers and thrown convulsing onto the floor or into a bucket of urine, baby chicks being kicked, stepped on, and having their necks snapped on feeder lines, the routine breaching of welfare guidelines.

“[We documented] the potential breaking of European law, workers failing at biosecurity, a negligence by workers to check on the birds’ welfare which resulted in lame, sick and dying chickens being left to suffer for days, and a free range, RSPCA-Assured range that is mainly concrete.

“The public is being fed a lie by the industry, The RSPCA, and even other animal welfare organizations. Slow growing birds still suffer. They are still subjected to horrendous abuse at the hands of catching teams holding RSPCA certificates. Animal Justice Project advocates a vegan diet for consumers as the only solution to truly protect animals.”

Animal Justice Project will take its findings to the Annual National Poultry and Egg Awards backed by the British Poultry Council in central London on July 4, and will be campaigning on high streets and university campuses across Britain to promote a vegan diet as part of its new campaign ‘The Foul Truth’.

The post ‘Ethical Farm’ Investigation Shows Workers Throwing Animals Into Buckets Of Urine appeared first on Plant Based News.

‘Kindness is a gift everybody can afford to give’ – here are five simple ways to encourage more of it

1. Veganism

At its root, veganism is a lifestyle of compassion that recognizes the sentient qualities of animals. And whilst the Conservative party voted in 2017 that animals don’t have emotions, and can’t feel pain – it is impossible to deny science.

Sheep can recognize up to 50 other sheep’s faces and remember them for two years, cows show excitement when they discover how to open a gate leading to a food reward, and mother hens teach their chicks which foods are good to eat. In short, animals feel pain, they have emotions, and they have as much of a right to live without suffering as we do.

Going vegan not only respects the consensus on animal sentience, but it also saves them from abuse and death. Each year, a vegan saves the lives of 365 animals.

2. Volunteering

Animal sanctuaries, or charities like Blue Cross, are always in need of help. Whether it’s helping to build a run for rescued chickens or taking dogs without an owner for a walk. These small acts of kindness go a long way and help improve the quality of life for those animals given a second chance.

Blue Cross state: “Every year thousands of volunteers generously give their time to help us to help pets across the country. Whether they are working directly with pets in our rehoming centres, hospitals or fostering schemes, helping us to raise money in our charity shops or through fundraising, or sharing our messages of responsible pet ownership within their communities – they all make a huge difference to our work and their time is very valuable to us.”

3. Donate

Donating requires a privilege some people just don’t have, but money isn’t the only thing you can offer. Dog shelters will always welcome food donations, old toys, and even bedding.

So instead of throwing these things away – consider dropping them off at your local animal charity.

4. Adopting an animal

It’s a big decision, one that comes with a lot of responsibility. But if you’re wanting to bring an animal home – don’t buy from a breeder.

The saying ‘adopt don’t shop’ is more relevant now than ever; it’s reported that 1.5 million per year, or more than 4,100 pets a day, are killed in America’s shelters.

Buying from a breeder not only increases those statistics but adds to the number of dogs that have been bred to look a certain way ending up with health problems.

5. Wear your message

Some forms of activism can seem a little daunting, so if you’re not ready to stand outside parliament waving a sign and demanding change, something as little as what you wear can make a big difference.

Apparel with vegan messages has filtered into the mainstream, providing people with an easy way to introduce others to the lifestyle. It can spark debate, raise questions, and allows you to educate people in a less confrontational style.

The post 5 Ways To Encourage More Kindness appeared first on Plant Based News.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is to investigate a local dairy farm after undercover footage reveals ‘horrific scenes’ of abuse.

Undercover footage, published by animal-rights organization Surge, appears to show workers on C J & G R Carnell Farm in Slapton, Buckinghamshire, repeatedly punch and kick dairy cows and calves

Surge says the most ‘disturbing’ parts of the footage include a cow having water hosed into her ears and face while held in an insemination rack, a man beating a cow’s face with his crutches, and children being present while newborn calves are mishandled, sworn at, and force-fed.

Footage from the dairy farm

‘Dairy farms are anything but transparent’

“The footage seen here shows not only a flagrant violation of the safety of these animals but points to the wider systemic issues found throughout the whole dairy industry, such as the separation of newborn calves from their mothers,” Co-director of Surge, Ed Winters, said in a statement sent to Plant Based News.

“The dairy industry likes to call February ‘Februdairy’, attempting to deceive consumers into believing a false narrative about how animals are treated within the industry. But for all of the dairy industries claims of transparency, investigators have proven that the hidden realities of what happens to cows on dairy farms are anything but transparent.”

Plant Based News has contacted C J & G R Carnell Farm for comment.

The post ‘Horrific’ Footage Shows Cows And Calves Being Beaten And Kicked On Dairy Farm appeared first on Plant Based News.

People who feed their cats a vegan diet are at risk of breaking animal welfare laws, according to the RSPCA.

A spokesperson for the charity told The Telegraph that feeding cats – who are often described as ‘obligate carnivores’ – a meat-free diet could result in a breach of the Animal Welfare Act.

The advice follows the appearance of the latest in non-meat and vegan pet foods at the National Pet Show in Birmingham (UK) recently, coupled with a steady rise in demand for such products from concerned consumers wanting specialist alternatives for animals under their care.

Animal Welfare Act

“Under the Animal Welfare Act, the law requires an owner to take reasonable steps to ensure that all the pet’s needs are met,” the spokesperson is reported to have said.

“This includes a healthy diet, as well as providing suitable living conditions, ability to behave normally, appropriate company and protection from pain, suffering, injury, and disease.

“Dogs are omnivores and can eat a wide variety of food types so they can survive on a vegetarian diet as long as the diet is well-balanced. Cats are strict carnivores and depend on some very specific nutrients that are found in meat including taurine, vitamin A and arachidonic acid so can become seriously ill if they are fed a vegetarian or vegan diet.

“If an owner is considering switching their pet’s diet they should consult with their vet to make sure that it will meet all their pets nutritional needs which will depend on many factors such as age, health and lifestyle.”

Healthy cats

The UK’s Vegetarian Society agrees that cats in the wild are obligate carnivores, but points out that there are ‘commercial vegetarian foods available that contain synthetic versions of essential nutrients’ for domestic cats.

“It is the owner’s responsibility to feed their pet a balanced diet suitable for its age, lifestyle and health status. We would recommend seeking advice from a vet before changing your cat’s diet.”

Vegan kitties

Dr. Andrew Knight – Professor of Animal Welfare and Ethics at the University of Winchester – is such a vet, and sees problems with feeding companion animals so-called traditional, meat- and fish-based pet foods.

“As a companion animal veterinarian with a particular interest in the health and nutritional issues surrounding vegan companion animal diets, I’ve trawled through the scientific literature for studies describing their adverse effects,” he said in a blog post for The Vegan Society.

“Oddly perhaps, given the strength of ‘urban wisdom’ on this issue, I’ve struggled to locate any scientific evidence demonstrating that cats and dogs fed well-planned and nutritional vegan diets are less healthy than the norm.

“Yet, I have found evidence of one kind. I’ve accidentally located more than 10 published studies documenting hazardous ingredients in commercial meat-based diets, or adverse health effects in cats and dogs maintained on them. Interested readers will find them summarized here.”

Complete and balanced

Knight says that ensuring that the diets of kitty friends are nutritionally complete and balanced is key to ensuring health and vitality. Several companies exist that claim to provide such non-meat pet foods, including products specifically developed to meet the needs of cats.

Italian brand Ami has been formulating meat-free pet foods for more than a decade and distributes its products to over 25 countries across the globe. Its hypoallergenic complete cat food has been designed to ‘solve typical problems of poor nutrition: heavy or slow digestion, appetite and fatigue’.

The UK’s Benevo launched its vegetable-based dry cat food in 2005, followed by a moist food for dogs and cats called Duo in 2006. Both flavors are free from genetically-modified ingredients and include vegan-sourced taurine, among other essential vitamins and minerals.

*This story was updated on November 26. It initially said the RSPCA had warned that those who fed cats a vegan diet could be at a risk of a jail sentence. The RSPCA says it made no warning, and added that it would not prosecute people for feeding their companion animals a vegan diet.

The post Feeding Cats A Vegan Diet Could Potentially Break The Law appeared first on Plant Based News.

Imagine how ridiculous it would seem if a charity like Save The Children or the NSPCC came out in favor of killing kids.

Imagine they promoted guidelines on how to kill day-old babies by shredding them in batches. Imagine they served dead baby casseroles at their fundraisers. And imagine they rolled their eyes and laughed scornfully at the ’emotive’ people who say it’s cruel and immoral to kill kids.

So what about the RSPCA – the so-called Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals? There’s only one word in its name I take issue with. The RSPCA doesn’t prevent cruelty to animals – overall, it actually promotes this cruelty.

Through its Assured label, the RSPCA literally gives its seal of approval to mechanized farms and slaughterhouses, in return for funding. It doesn’t only turn a blind eye – it endorses the immoral profiteers who shred male chicks on the day of their birth (the charity describes it as ‘an effective and humane kill’) and pack screaming pigs into gas chambers.

Take a moment to let this sink in. We’re talking about the organization that calls itself the Royal Society for the PREVENTION of Cruelty to Animals.

There’s much more too. As well as receiving funds from the dairy industry, the charity (coincidentally?) defends the dairy industry’s policy of separating newly-born calves from their mother. Even dairy farmers themselves admit how distressing this can be for both mother and calf.

But the RSPCA goes much further – it has produced guidelines for how to slaughter pregnant cows, including instructions on how to crush the unborn foetus ‘by a blow to the head with a suitable blunt instrument’.

When campaigners at Go Vegan World released an advert to expose the truth about dairy farming, the RSPCA’s head of campaigns, David Bowles, opposed the animal lovers and took the side of the dairy industry. He accused vegans of using ’emotive’ language.

More recently, Bowles tried to reframe another debate to help another set of animal killers: he said the salmon industry’s slaughter of seals ‘is not culling – it’s about humane pest control’.

You don’t need to pinch yourself – this is really happening. While vegan activists are out disrupting illegal hunts and liberating animals, the RSPCA pays its head of campaigns to sit in an office legitimising animal cruelty using stupid word play.

Heck, the charity even has meat recipes on its own website. Preventing cruelty to animals? Don’t make me laugh!

Now, what about all the pets and other animals the RSPCA saves? That’s got to be a good thing, right? Of course it is – but only up to a point because in 2012 it was revealed that the charity had killed nearly half the animals it ‘rescued’ the previous year. Thousands of them were killed for non-medical reasons.

The whistle-blower who revealed this data committed suicide within months of the truth coming out. Her grieving family said the RSPCA had ‘bullied’ her and behaved ‘like a paramilitary organisation‘. It’s so dark.

To return to the Assured label, how can a charity that describes itself as preventing cruelty to animals justify its collusion with the livestock industry, which kills 70 billion land animals each year?

On its website the RSPCA says: “Whilst we respect those who choose a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle and the personal commitment it takes, we take the view that we must campaign for the highest possible standards of animal welfare in all areas.”

To a casual reader, that may sound convincing. But vegans know that claims of ‘humane’ or ‘high-welfare meat’ are misleading. These schemes are used to con consumers into unethical purchases – rather than say meat is murder, the RSPCA helps to ease the conscience of troubled consumers who might otherwise stop eating meat, eggs and dairy.

As vegan activists fight to get the truth out, the RSPCA is manning the barricades, defending the killing industry. It tells ‘animal loving Brits’ to continue eating slaughtered meat but ‘look out for the logo and show you care’.

Unless you think it isn’t cruel to violently take another life for your own profit, how can you deny the RSPCA is PROMOTING cruelty?

Perhaps Mr Bowles will say I use emotive language but, from this vegan’s perspective, defenders of the meat industry will always be the enemy of animals. The RSPCA is the most ironically-named organization in history. I think it does more harm than good.

The post OPINION: The RSPCA Doesn’t Prevent Cruelty To Animals – It Promotes It appeared first on Plant Based News.

Workers have been recorded force feeding, throwing, and hitting newborn calves at RSPCA assured Coombe Farm in Somerset – which supplies dairy to UK supermarket Waitrose.

Investigation

The footage was captured during an undercover investigation by internation animal protection organization Animal Equality, and is available for viewing online.

Despite the farm’s RSPCA assurance – which is a certification given to those that are meant to be ‘humane’ – the video depicts violence toward the young animals.

Footage

The ‘brutal’ footage shows calves having feeding tubes shoved down their throats, a worker standing on one calf, another being dragged by their legs, and animals being deprived of water for up to 29 hours on what the organization says was ‘one of the hottest days of the year’.

The footage also depicts various struggles associated with separating dairy cows from their newborn calves.

Separation

In a statement sent to Plant Based News, Animal Equality’s UK Director Dr. Toni Shephard said: “Consumers will be shocked to see such cruel treatment of tiny newborn calves, with their heartbroken mothers forced to look on helplessly.

“That these harrowing scenes are from the much romanticised organic farm producing dairy products for Waitrose will seem almost beyond belief.”

‘Welfare concerns’

Coombe Farm told the Daily Mail: “We ensure that any welfare issues raised are dealt with immediately. We initiated a request to the Soil Association [which certifies the farm as organic] and RSPCA Assured to visit the farm in question and carried out our own investigation.

“We have addressed any issues of non-compliance for the Soil Association and RSPCA Assured, and have implemented further training for farm staff.”

A spokesperson for Waitrose added: “This does not meet the high standards we set for a farm supplying us. We suspended the farm and launched a full investigation.”

The post Expose Shows Newborn Calves Being ‘Brutally Handled’ At Somerset Farm appeared first on Plant Based News.